Photo: Christian Nightengale
Matt Davis
Matt Davis begins with a horrible sort of image, like fetal skulls, the wrecked teeth of a meth addict, and soldier obituary headshots, which are found on the Internet—that “flea market of availability,” he calls it—and then pulls out and warps the image’s material and associative toxins until they are crowded on the surface. He scratches the image, burns it, peels it chemically, and adorns it with bright and shiny enamel pustules, candy, cat litter, varnish, toilet paper and more. These deformations compound whatever abjectness was present before his intervention, and yet Davis has a way of cultivating a secret, shameful prettiness in such base imagery. In Umberto Eco’s picture book, “On Ugliness,” most artistic depictions of the vile and the disgusting throughout art history can’t help but to make ugliness visually attractive. So, too, does Davis stimulate the visual pleasure gag reflex.
Matt Davis often imbues horror with a dose of humor. Rotted meth addicts’ teeth are collaged into the shape of a soaring eagle so that two Middle American icons are married. In his latest series, the faces of deceased soldiers are appropriated, but their identities are not distinguishable. They peer out from the ink drips and splotches that Davis has bled with chemicals and a brush. They are destroyed, again, but now blaze like sunlight through a rose window. mattdavis.homestead.com
Related Stories
Breakout Artists 2020: Chicago’s Next Generation of Image Makers This year’s image makers offer a snapshot of what makes our art community great.
Breakout Artists 2019: Chicago’s Next Generation of Image Makers We present a few of the myriad artists who represent the unbounded energy of art-making in Chicago.
Breakout Artists 2018: Chicago's Next Generation of Image Makers Newcity presents its 2018 Breakout Artists, a sample of the myriad Chicago makers who deserve our attention and admiration. Whether it's beautiful protest posters wheat-pasted in dive bar bathrooms or gorgeous fabrics woven from pictures and memories, we have artists to thank for the images that move us to feel, to think, and to act.
Imaging the Body In Analog: A Review of “Body As Image” at the Chicago Artists Coalition Curated by Sabrina Greig, this group show of three CAC HATCH residents challenges our digital present with figurative pictures with an analog feel.
Review Revue: Art Critic Lori Waxman Offers Live Press Generation for Overseas Artists Waxman’s project is an earnest embodiment of journalism’s duty to provide a public service and a much-needed antidote to the government’s inhospitable policies.
Art 50 2020: Chicago’s Artists' Artists This list is a testament to the multiplicity of people making art in our city.
